


Not That Young

by CassieIngaben



Series: Splendour in the Grass [3]
Category: Eroica Yori Ai o Komete | From Eroica with Love
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-12
Updated: 2020-08-12
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:20:23
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,314
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25858066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CassieIngaben/pseuds/CassieIngaben
Summary: Lord Price had showed up on the 28th of July with the Giorgione and enough luggage to last him for the whole summer.
Relationships: Dorian Red Gloria/Lord Price (From Eroica with Love), Dorian Red Gloria/Original Male Character(s)
Series: Splendour in the Grass [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1976536
Comments: 7
Kudos: 8
Collections: From Eroica With Love - Groups Challenges





	Not That Young

"You look so pretty today, Dorian. I trust you liked the Giorgione?"

Dorian nodded. A real, priceless Giorgione. He loved it. He loved it so much that he'd resolved to ignore its cost. Because the Giorgione hadn't actually been priceless. And the cost was proving to be higher than he'd anticipated. Lord Price had showed up on the 28th of July with the Giorgione and enough luggage to last him for the whole summer.

"Well, how about thanking me? Would you like to show me again how grateful you are?"

"I—"

"Don't worry. I'm sure your father won't miss you. It won't take long."

And it hadn't. It'd just felt like it—but Dorian had closed his eyes, and once again thought of the painting he was in love with.

* * *

Theodore Red, Earl of Gloria, sat up on the bed and lit a cigarette. "Are you sure, Rex?"

"I can't bear to leave you languishing in Cornwall. The natives have webbed feet. And it's too far from my place. What's wrong with moving in with your new lover?" ~~~~

"You know I can't afford it. It's—"

Lord Price reached out for the Veuve Clicquot bottle on the bedside table, and poured Theo a glass. "I wish you weren't so medieval. It's inevitable that one party will have more money than the other."

Theo took the proffered glass, and made short work of it. "Not if one party has all the money and the other has none."

"Theo. I don't want to have this discussion. I want you to move in with me. And Dorian, of course."

"Dorian will start at Eton in September."

"All the more reason for you to move. Windsor's practically round the corner."

Theo looked inside his empty glass and sighed. "True. And even then, I'll miss him."

"We'll both miss him."

The Earl of Gloria smiled. "I wouldn't have taken you for a family man."

Lord Price smiled back. "You'd be surprised."

* * *

The House dame peeked into the study room, where Dorian was leafing through an art history book, contemplating the way the late Autumn sunshine slanted on the pages, gilding the faded reproduction of a stained glass window into life.

"Red? You have a visitor."

Dorian bit his lips, closed the book and followed the dame down the House's entry hall. She smiled at the tall man waiting there. "Here he is, Lord Price. Sorry it took us so long. Go ahead, Dorian. Enjoy your day out."

Unspeaking, Dorian came forward. Lord Price put his hand on Dorian's shoulder, and steered him towards the door.

"He will, Mrs. Holt."

She dimpled. "Some boys are so lucky to have such a solicitous uncle."

Their day out proceeded as it always did. A leisurely walk by the river, trees aflame and brambles laden with berries. A proper, civilised lunch in the quietly elegant restaurant by the hotel. Sex in the hotel room.

Afterwards, Dorian got dressed, prim in his school uniform, and Lord Price dropped him at the college gates just in time for boys' tea.

* * *

The more Lord Price took him on their days out, the less Dorian minded. After the first few times it was like it was happening to someone else. He'd noted abstractly the day he'd started to spurt, like adults—like Lord Price—and how the man had appeared faintly displeased. Or disappointed, maybe.

When Lord Price didn't show up for several weeks, it took Dorian some time to realise that what he was feeling was desolation. And that what he felt when Lord Price reappeared was an incomprehensible tangle of terror, want and desire. Which only abated when they walked into the hotel room, and a quiet listlessness swamped him. He looked at the bed first, then he raised his head. And stared.

Backlit against the window was the large black outline of a man. All that Dorian could discern was a paunchy body and grey hair. The man beckoned to him. Dorian looked at the man's extended hand, noticing idly how it was dusted with equally grey hair. He stepped closer, away from the sun's glare, and incuriously looked up at the man's face.

Lord Price patted Dorian's shoulder. "Well. I'll leave you to it, then. I'm sure you'll have a great time together. I'll be back at five, Vance."

* * *

Theo always got lachrymose after the fourth brandy. "Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if we'd stayed in Cornwall. Or if we could have kept the Castle."

"You'd be even deeper in debt. Keeping a Castle these days is worse than any alimony."

Theo gave Lord Price a petulant glare. "I'm not going to fight and spoil Dorian's last day before he goes to Oxford. I can still remember when I set off for it—"

"You went to Cambridge, Father."

Theo did a double-take. "So I did. Yes. And I wished you'd gone there too, but you insisted on the Other Place, I have no idea why. Still, Oxford's dreaming spires and all that. Halcyon days."

Lord Price snorted, and stabbed his steak with his fork. "Yes. It only goes downhill after that."

Theo waved his knife in the air, quoting with more enthusiasm than accuracy. " _'Love of my youth, forgive if I forget thee.'_ "

Dorian stood up abruptly and threw his napkin on the table. "I must be off."

Theo looked mournfully as Dorian walked through the door and left. "He's so morose these days. I hope he pays attention on the road. I told you that car's too fast for someone that young. And you must have paid a fortune for it."

"Dorian's not that young anymore." Price shrugged. "And I had a good deal from a friend. I'd lent him something costly, a while back, and he was grateful. I think it was an appropriate gift for Dorian's eighteenth birthday."

"I bet it was one of those things you do to make money and dodge the taxman. Steal from the rich to give to the richer." Theo paused, picked up his glass, then went on. "You know, at some point Dorian went through a kleptomaniac phase. I thought it was fun; I encouraged him, even. I think I liked to see how it made Helen's blood boil. But then we went to Cornwall and it just wasn't as much fun anymore. Or maybe I lost interest. And he did, too. I think it was around the time we moved in here, actually. Seems like ages ago."

"It was ages ago."

"Yes. Dorian had just turned thirteen. It was happy days."

Theo drained his glass, and declaimed again: " _'Though nothing can bring back the hour of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower.'_ I knew Dorian was an artist the day we visited Tintern Abbey. He was four. His sisters were running around screeching and throwing things at each other, and he just sat in the middle of the ruins and gazed at them. Barely moved the whole time. It was a piece of work to drag him away when it was time to go home. I had to bribe him with a book about stained glass windows."

He set his glass down. "Ah, Tintern Abbey. _'We will grieve not, rather find strength in what remains behind.'_ "

"It's the wrong poem, Theo."

"Same author, though."

Lord Price shrugged.

* * *

Dorian got out of his Maserati and walked up to Sir Vance Digby, who gestured at the car. "How do you like my present, then?"

"It's fast."

"Yes. You like it fast."

Dorian turned back towards the car and contemplated its shiny red body. "I have two hours."

"Not a problem. My room is on the first floor. And now that you're based here in Oxford, we can meet whenever we want. I'd like to introduce you to some friends. They're very generous."

"How generous?"

"Extremely."

Dorian nodded, and went ahead.

**Author's Note:**

> This work is a prequel of sorts to my story "[ Not That Bad ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25193545)." It can also be read in conjunction with my other story "[Seeing is Believing ](https://archiveofourown.org/works/42265)." However, they can all be viewed as stand-alones.
> 
> Posted for the eroicaml.groups.io August 2020 Challenge: a story focussed on minor characters (Feel free to join us at [https://eroicaml.groups.io ](https://eroicaml.groups.io))


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